The present invention relates to a contact module having an insulator and a conductive contact mounted on the insulator, and further relates to a connector using such a contact module.
A connector of the type is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent (JP-B) No. 2537698 and comprises a plurality of contact modules each called a terminal assembly, which are stacked together. Each contact module comprises a plurality of conductive terminals and an insulator overmolded on the terminals to retain them. In the production of each terminal assembly, a lead frame having a plurality of terminals is obtained by pressing a metal plate. An insulator is overmolded on the lead frame, then an unnecessary part of the lead frame is cut off.
The connector is suitable for electrically connecting between two boards arranged perpendicular to each other. However, an expensive die assembly is required for overmolding the lead frame with the insulator. Further, the production process of the terminal assembly is complicated.
A connector of the type is also disclosed in JP-A-2000-113928 and comprises a plurality of contact modules each called a connecting body, which are stacked together. Each contact module comprises two resin members and a plurality of conductive contacts sandwiched between the resin members.
The connector does not require to overmold the contacts by resin material. However, since the two resin members having different shapes are employed, the number of parts becomes large, two kinds of expensive die assemblies are required, and further, the assembling process of the connecting body becomes complicated.